Project adds Delaware voices, making Shakespeare's play more personal through videos, essays and performance.

“How do you see yourself in Hamlet?”

Throughout this spring, Delaware Shakespeare Festival (DSF) has gone into schools, onto the streets and online to ask many versions of this simple question. The independent project joins in celebration of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's death in similar fashion as the Globe Theater's world Hamlet tour.

The community has responded with a previously unrecognized love for Shakespeare's Danish prince and his melancholy. From retirement-community residents, who related to Hamlet’s grief, to college students who connected with his existential angst, the responses have been surprising, thought-provoking and heartfelt.

DSF will present the responses they've collected during the “I Am Hamlet” Project Town Hall at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, at the Pratt Student Center on the campus of Wilmington University, 320 N. DuPont Highway in New Castle, Delaware.

The project has brought scholars, artists, students and other members of the community together in public forums and invigorating discussions. This summer, DSF will present HamletJuly 11-27 at Rockwood Park in Wilmington.

· A presentation by Professor Kate Cottle (Wilmington University) entitled “Hamlet: A Sense of Unease,” which explores social and cultural similarities between Shakespeare’s day and today.

· Readings of winning entries to the high school and college essay contests.

· The performance of a “social media poem” with text pulled from “I Am Hamlet” tweets and Facebook posts.

"It's a privilege to partner with the Delaware Shakespeare Festival in a community outreach event built around Hamlet," said Kate Cottle, Assistant Professor and Chair of English and Literature at Wilmington University. "In taking this project on, we've introduced Hamlet and the parallels between the play and a new generation of theater-goers. Even people who say they don't like Shakespeare find that his ideas and characters are powerfully resonant today."

Wilmington University is co-sponsoring the Town Hall with the Delaware Shakespeare Festival. The “I Am Hamlet” Project is partially funded by a grant from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and more than 60 individuals who contributed to the “I Am Hamlet” Project campaign.

About Wilmington University

Wilmington University is a private, nonprofit university committed to providing flexible, career-oriented traditional and online undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degree programs and offering small class sizes, individualized attention and affordable tuition. For more information, contact Wilmington University at 302-356-INFO (4636), via email at infocenter@wilmu.edu or visit our web site at www.wilmu.edu.

About Delaware Shakespeare Festival

Delaware Shakespeare Festival is a professional theater company dedicated to making Shakespeare accessible and fun by presenting affordable, high-quality classical theater and education programs to the residents and visitors of the greater Delaware Valley. Summer performances are held at the theater in Rockford Park in Wilmington, Delaware.